Camp Murder

This has to be some of the worst acting I've seen in my life. Honestly, it's probably an insult to the fine thespians in high school plays across the country to compare the actors in this movie to them. Not a single believable portrayal in the whole movie.

One Polonia movie always leads to another! This is Mark's tribute to the Friday the 13th with a little Halloween thrown in. I know he already made some of the Camp Blood movies, but that wasn't his own series so I get the appeal in making his own movie.

Lots of Polonia regulars and a hefty dose of gore make this a pretty damn fun and breezy 73 minutes. The mask the killer wears is actually really awesome and Jeff Kirkendall wields a weapon in the appropriately menacing sort of way.

But the most important thing is that Jamie Morgan plays a character named Roxy Rumble and she's a professional wrestler and at one point her and her boyfriend decide to play a game of how long can she sit on his face so she may be the greatest character in the Polonia Universe.

It amazes me the amount of horrible acting that happens in this film. I'm all for independent low budget films but at least make the dialogue flow and not cliche. The old lady in the car discussing her lady needs and the doctor confessing to a one night stand as the love of his life is beyond ridiculous. And the actors trying to play younger than their actual age, really? Trying to portray like you are in campground when I'm fact your are in someone's backyard was beyond believable.

Interesting cast of actors in this one but I actually enjoyed this for a low budget movie. Lighting and sound was above average but the soundtrack was a little irritating at times.

After escaping from a mental asylum, a deranged serial killer returns to the campground he stalked years earlier and targets a group of friends hoping to use the area to indulge in long-suppressed desires, but as his doctor tracks him the killings bring everyone together to stop his rampage.

Overall, this one was a decent enough and enjoyable indie slasher. Among the better features here comes from the goofy setup that comes about providing this one with some intriguing setpieces. The main storyline here involves the escaped mental patient returning to the campground where he massacred scores of people years ago, forcing the psychiatrist to chase him down with his mother and a bounty hunter. Likewise, the concurrent storyline involving the group of friends coming together at the camp for a fun weekend trip with their own issues and interpersonal dynamics comes off quite well at getting everybody together to be attacked by the killer they're unaware of. That leads rather well into the films' cheesy and charming low-budget slashing scenes. The initial escape and the first ambush on the couple in the woods provide the kind of sudden indie-style setpieces that get this rolling with some brutal kills amongst the cheese, while scenes of him appearing to the birdwatchers or the forest ranger offer up some more fun in that ambush-style slashing setup. The finale here provides some more fun with the series of back-and-forth confrontations as the killer finishes off the remaining members of the group while also featuring enjoyable gore and action that has some shocking outcomes for the survivors, giving this some likable elements. There are some rather big issues with this one. One of the few factors against the film is the rather goofy and flimsy series of excuses needed to believe the setup involving the friends being together in the woods in the first place. This requires so much stretching of the believability to buy that they're wrestlers and long-time friends which is somewhat laughable as well as taking up a lot of time trying to hammer this facet home. As well, there's also the usual assortment of issues here in these films that covers the blatantly obvious production issues ranging from the weekend style shooting, the gore make-up, and the general approach of everything which can be a factor in holding this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and a sex scene.